sport

sportn.— «Who’s to blame for the decline of Red Delicious? Everyone, it seems. Consumers were drawn to the eye candy of brilliantly red apples, so supermarket chains paid more for them. Thus, breeders and nurseries patented and propagated the most rubied mutations, or “sports,” that they could find, and growers bought them by the millions, knowing that these thick-skinned wonders also would store for ages.» —“Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is” by Adrian Higgins Washington Post Aug. 4, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)